According to beat writer Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun, right-handed starter Ervin Santana is “likely to make a decision on his destination within the next day or two” because he wants to get into a camp as soon as possible to get properly tuned up for the beginning of the 2014 regular season.

The Orioles and Blue Jays have both made offers to the 31-year-old Santana, but the Braves now seem to be emerging as a darkhorse with over half of their projected starting rotation battling physical issues.

Santana opened this offseason with a reported contract demand of more than $100 million, but draft pick compensation has destroyed his market and he may wind up having to settle for a one-year contract.

Santana posted a 3.24 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 161 strikeouts in 211 innings last year for the Royals.

It won’t be if he signs with the bluejays, problem is the jays are sooo cheap they probably won’t go more then 14mil for 1 year but if they were not on MLB welfare you know they would go all out for this guy. But hey we can at least hope the jays do indeed get him

Hi Harry. I have a question for you. When did Sabathia become a soft tossing lefty? His “fastball” is toping out at 88MPH. The average fastball from Sabathis is mid 80’s. I wish him luck.

proudlycanadian - Mar 12, 2014 at 7:30 AM

According to Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail, former Santana team mate, Macir Izturis phoned Santana twice yesterday morning and Santana did not pick up the phone. That can be read as an indication that Santana is unlikely to be signing with Toronto. I would not be upset if he signs elsewhere.

I’m confused by the “over half of their projected starting rotation” method of accounting. What would “half” of their starting rotation be? They aren’t going with a 4 man or a 6 man rotation, are they? And they can’t split Brandon Beachy in half, can they?

The injuries in Atlanta could be Santana’a salvation…..I was looking forward to hearing how he’d always dreamed of playing for lower-level teams like Baltimore or Toronto with hitter’s parks in the slugging AL East, especially since the long ball has plagued him throughout his career….It would be refreshing if he simply said “I had to play somewhere and I just took the most money I could get”……

I wonder how teams will react next season when players on the verge of being free agents demand being traded to avoid the ‘risk’ of receiving a qualifying offer from their teams and no longer attached to compensations because they can’t receive a QO from a team with wich they played for less than a full season.

Team owners I guess will be reluctant to trade them because a player’s value diminishes when he approaches free agency (last year of contract) and the receiving team can no longer receive compensation if he hits free agency. This is not Japan so a player’s desire is viewed as nothing more than a whim instead of trying to respect his petition.